ONC Releases Draft of Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement

​The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on January 5, 2018, released for comment the draft version of a framework for securely sharing health information across networks. As part of the 21st Century Cures Act, Congress identified interoperability as an area of importance and directed ONC to "develop or support a trusted exchange framework, including a common agreement among health information networks nationally." The proposed framework would establish policies, procedures, and technical standards for trusted exchange between networks and is designed to bridge the gap between providers and patients' information systems, while allowing for interoperability across disparate health information networks, ONC said.